


The State Of Neptune's Teens

by afteriwake



Category: Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: Deleting Text, Friendship, Gen, Human Nature, Melancholy Veronica Mars, POV Veronica Mars, Past Duncan Kane/Veronica Mars - Freeform, Past Logan Echolls/Veronica Mars - Freeform, Prudent Decisions, Season/Series 02, Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Heavenly Virtues, Typing, Veronica Thinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 05:24:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17037473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: Veronica muses on the virtue of prudence, the sins she's seen and what that entails for the teenagers she knows in Neptune.





	The State Of Neptune's Teens

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to **fickledame** & **rowanlove** for help with understanding my prompt a little better (" _prudence_ " for **7sins_7virtues** ). Any long passages in italics are something Veronica's typing.

_There is a difference between being prudent and being a prude, or at least that's what I've always thought. Being prudent meant wisdom in being careful; being a prude is not the same thing, obviously. That was why being called a prude was such an insult._

_But prudence always seems to be in short supply around Neptune. People get killed, lives are destroyed, and the measures taken because of these things go beyond being careful and into the realm of..._

Veronica was dozing off at her computer. She was trying to get this out, these feelings that resided inside her. No one was ever going to see what she wrote...it was in a special set of encrypted folders that required a password to view. She laughed a little as she realized that locking up all the things she had to say was a rather prudent course of action.

She was tired of having to be careful again. Now that she wasn't an 09er anymore, now that her father's disgrace had caused her to be pushed away from the in-crowd, the golden people of Neptune, she could do or say whatever she wanted and it didn't matter. Well, it _did_ matter; she still had to be careful not to say something that might turn the wrath of her classmates directly onto her, but...

She had seen the worst of people. She had seen the fighting, the lying, the cheating, the backstabbing, and the cold hatred that so many of her classmates held for the people on the other side of the fence, and she was damn sure not wanting it to rain down on her.

She had seen some good, too, but in Neptune goodness and good intentions were woefully scarce.

It was worse now, and it wasn't just her and her actions that showed it. Duncan had saved his daughter from a horrible situation but now he was gone...forever, probably, if Veronica wanted to be realistic. He was going to have to be so very careful now in everything he did because of a rash impulse to flee, to save his daughter. Logan...Logan was hotheaded and a general pain in the ass, whether she was dating him or not, but he was methodical. He could be careful, he just...wasn't. Though whatever it was that was going on between him and that new girlfriend of his...she just hoped she didn't get dragged into it any more than she already had.

It was her time to exercise some prudence in her own life. Stop worrying about the two men who flitted in and out of her life, and start making some smart decisions about her own life.

She needed to concentrate, to get all these emotions and thoughts out of her and somewhere safe so that she could become a calm, collected person capable of doing what was necessary to get through the last few months of high school.

_People get killed, lives are destroyed, and the measures taken because of these things go beyond being careful and into the realm of stupidity. I mean, making decisions without any thought? Stupid. Running off and leaving everyone in a lurch? Stupid._

_Why does it feel like I'm constantly surrounded by stupid people who can't think about anyone but themselves?_

She paused again in her writing, trying to figure out what she really wanted to say. She wasn't angry at Wallace anymore for going to his dad, though she was sure no one would have guessed that by reading what was on her screen.

If anything, while it had been a rash thing to do, in the end, it had been beneficial. Wallace was different now...he knew what he wanted, which was getting to know his dad, and he went for it. He seemed more confident, more reassured. He wasn't the same guy she'd cut down from the flagpole. Which, she thought to herself, was a rash decision I made that turned out well. I wasn't being careful; if one of the guys who had put Wallace up there had wanted me hurt, he could have done it. But he didn't, and I got a friend.

She stared at the screen again and began to type once more.

_Of course, stupidity could be inherited. We could blame or parents and just be done with it. My mom? She's done so many hurtful things that I don't even know if she thinks about them anymore. She's somewhere, and this time, I don't want to find her. Smartest thing she ever did was leave this last time...hopefully for good._

_Maybe stupid decisions, things we do without thinking about them, aren't always a bad thing._

_But around here? We need to be more careful. All of us. I don't want to lose any more friends. I don't want to have to attend another funeral, or wonder where the hell they are._

Veronica stopped once again and just leaned back in her chair. She wasn't sure where she was going with this particular train of thought. Was she really worried about her friends that much? Did she really think one day she'd end up at a funeral for Weevil because he'd mouthed off to the wrong person? Did she think she'd have to sit through another trial for Logan? Her friends, her classmates...they weren't stupid, they were just teenagers. They made stupid, rash decisions without thinking about the consequences. They lived their lives like tomorrow wasn't important. They walked around with chips on their shoulders, the 09ers and the poor kids alike, thinking nothing could harm them in the slightest. 

And tomorrow, no matter how much she tried to pound the idea of prudence into her skull, she was going to be the same Veronica she'd been for the last eighteen years: stubborn and wanting to do what was in her best interest.

She tapped her fingers on her desk for a moment. Was there any reason for her to finish this? She'd started thinking in random ways since she started trying to get this out, and there was nothing more to get out now. It was all there, on the screen in front of her. Okay, maybe not _everything_ she wanted out was out, but it was enough. And so she highlighted everything she had written, gave it one last glance, and in her first prudent act of the evening, hit the delete key.

Maybe some things were better off kept inside.


End file.
